


Carnival

by White_Rose_13



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dean is a dad, Destiel - Freeform, Eventual relationship, Flashbacks, Fluff, High-School Relationship, Jessica Moore Lives, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, M/M, cas is a dad, eventual destiel, high school sweethearts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-05-30 22:51:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6445474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/White_Rose_13/pseuds/White_Rose_13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak were high school sweethearts separated not by choice. When they meet again ten years later, both men are parents. Will they be able to find what they lost?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Lovelies,  
> This one is my first attempt at a multi-chapter story, so I hope you like it. Hit me with the comments/suggestions, I love them!

The gym was loud, crowded, and full of screaming children. In short, it was everything that Dean Winchester had spent his entire life actively avoiding. He still wasn’t sure how he had come to be here. All it had taken was one look at Elizabeth’s bright green puppy dog eyes (he still wanted to beat Sam for teaching her that) and he found himself saying, “Of course we can go princess.”

And that was how Dean found himself at Clifton Elementary School’s End of the Year Carnival on his first day off in a month. It was worth it though, the look on Elizabeth’s face when she told Mrs. Mullins, Dean’s next door neighbor and Elizabeth’s favorite baby-sitter, that her daddy was taking her to the school carnival. She was so excited, she had pranced around their tiny, two-bedroom apartment until Dean was dizzy watching her. He definitely did not get enough time with his little girl. Elizabeth was his entire world, and most days that unfortunately meant leaving the apartment long before his princess was awake, trusting Mrs. Mullins to get her ready for school, and getting home with enough time left in the day to help Elizabeth with her homework and to tuck her in bed before Dean’s night classes at the local community college started. Keeping Elizabeth clothed and fed required Dean to work as many hours as possible as assistant manager at Reed’s Auto shop, but he wanted to do better for Elizabeth, she deserved more. Dean had spent the last two years taking night classes, once again relying on Mrs. Mullins to watch Elizabeth. That woman was a godsend. Now, thankfully, Dean was almost done with his Associate’s degree in business, which would allow him to move up and hopefully open his own auto-shop where he could set his own hours and not worry about how he was going to pay the bills.

All of these thoughts, the daily stress that Dean carried, was erased from his mind as his six year old daughter grabbed his hand tighter and pulled him farther into the gymnasium.

“Come on Daddy! We have to go find Mr. Maddox and give him the cakes so we can go play!” Dean was dragged through out the large room, one hand holding on to his girl, half-afraid they’d get separated and he’d never see her again, and the other holding onto three overflowing grocery bags full of snack cakes that he had been charged with bringing to the carnival. Dean had never been apart of the Parent/Teacher Organization, had never had the time, but somehow he had still been tasked with supplying the treats for a cake walk. Dean had scrimped and scrounged to find the money for the cakes, in the end he decided to put off buying a new pair of desperately needed work boots for the third month in a row.

Finally, _finally,_ Elizabeth shouted out “Mr. Maddox,” and steered Dean towards her classroom teacher for the past year. Mr. Maddox was a fairly large man, but rather than appearing intimidating, Elizabeth and the rest of her classmates treated him like he was some sort of fuzzy, warm bear. Dean carefully deposited the cakes onto the ground near Mr. Maddox, and then scooped up his daughter and balanced her on one shoulder.

            Elizabeth giggled as she settled into her traditional place on Dean’s shoulder, and he worried not for the first time what he would do in a year or so when she was too big for this treatment. He didn’t have time to consider the issue anymore because the subject of his thoughts was currently pulling at his short, sandy blonde hair and yelling “go Daddy!” as she pointed in some unseen direction. Dean took off, well-practiced in following his daughter’s commands, even if he couldn’t see them, and they shortly found themselves in front of a booth for face-painting.

            Elizabeth scrambled down from his shoulder and pushed Dean into an empty chair. She tried to pull a second chair over from a nearby table, and the way she stuck out her tongue in concentration when it got stuck was almost too much for Dean as he started laughing his deep, stomach shaking laugh that he didn’t share with anyone else.

After watching the family of two finally get settled, a woman approached with a paint palette in one hand and a brush in the other.

“and what can I turn you into today miss?” The lady asked Elizabeth.

“A kitty!” Elizabeth said immediately as if there were no other option. Despite Dean’s constant reminders to be still, Elizabeth fidgeted in her seat while her face was painted. When she was finally finished, Dean snapped a picture of her pink nose and black whiskers.

“Your turn Daddy!” Elizabeth declared after making sure Dean had taken at least ten pictures and giving her approval to each one individually.

“I don’t know princess, Daddies don’t usually get their faces painted.” Dean said, knowing that it was a pointless argument but trying nonetheless.

“But Daddy, you have to be a kitty with me!” And once again Dean found himself on the receiving end of Sam Winchester’s patented puppy dog look. At that point Dean knew resistance was futile, and he resigned himself to going to class that night with a pink nose, and black whiskers. Dean sat stoically as his face was painted and Elizabeth bounced around beside him. He was able to relax slightly when the lady wielding the paintbrush winked at him, whispered “it comes off with warm water,” and then in a voice loud enough for Elizabeth to hear said, “There, all done!” Dean smiled through the second round of pictures, _they’re called selfies Daddy, duh,_ and then lifted Elizabeth back to his shoulder and set out to explore the rest of the gym.

            Two rumbling stomachs produced a hotdog for Elizabeth and two for Dean, but before he was finished with the second he was being dragged off to who-knows-where with a shout of “let’s play games Daddy!” Dean managed to shove the rest of the hotdog down in two bites, (Sam would be proud), in between a game of throwing darts at balloons, and the one where you toss a ping-pong ball into a cup to win a fish. After a few tears, caused when Dean tried to explain yet again why they couldn’t have pets in the apartment, (there was no way he could afford the security deposit required to have animals, even just a fish), Dean thought they were done with the games when Elizabeth sniffled and tugged on Dean’s hand. Crouching down so he could hear her better, Dean gently removed his daughter’s thumb from her mouth and waited patiently for her to tell him what she wanted.

            Instead of using her words, Elizabeth resorted to pointing to what she wanted, something she often did when upset. Dean’s eyes followed her finger to a game booth halfway across the gym. Hanging from the top corner of the booth was a large, rainbow colored, stuffed fish. Dean smiled and kissed the top of Elizabeth’s head before lifting her up into his arms.

“Now that is a fish we can take home.” He told her with a grin.

            There was a trick to winning carnival games, but it wasn’t one that Dean was prepared to teach to his six year old at the moment, so after he paid for her to take a turn throwing a ball to knock down the glasses, he laid down enough for a second game for himself. His first shot went wide, and he rotated his shoulder a few times, surprised at the miss and wondering when he had gotten out of shape. His second shot knocked off the top glass and sent it clattering to the floor, but the other two were stubbornly remaining. Before Dean could take his third and final shot a voice behind him made him jump.

“You’ve lost your touch. Ten years ago you could knock down all three glasses with the first ball.” Dean whirled around at the voice and stood frozen as he stared at the man in front of him. Seemingly oblivious to Dean’s opened mouth stare, the black haired man stepped around him, picked up the third ball, and sent it sailing neatly into the remaining two glasses. The sound of the glasses crashing to the ground was like a trigger to Dean. It was like someone flipped a switch and suddenly he was transported back in time ten years.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me a little longer to write than I wanted, its also shorter than I wanted...I got stuck on part of it for a few days so I'm not really happy with it. It might change later.

“Daddy, Daddy, look I won!” Shouted the little girl in pigtails in front of the booth.

“I see that,” The man said as he adjusted his tie and glanced towards the door, “pick out your prize so we can go find Mommy and head home.” The girl pointed towards a small stuffed pig hanging from the edge of the booth and a young, very bored Dean Winchester got it down and handed it to her.

“Thank you!” The girl called as she and her father walked off. Dean faintly heard the child going on about how she was going to name the pig Mr. Oinky, and shook his head. He was never having children. Ever. Dean was startled out of his thoughts when a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and lips pressed a light kiss to his neck. Dean yelped, more out of shock than anything else, and a hand slapped over his mouth as a voice whispered, “shush,” and he was pulled into the narrow walkway behind the row of booths.

            It was much quieter back there, and Dean was thankful for the momentary silence as he moved to the side and returned the embrace of the shorter boy beside him.

“Cas,” Dean whispered, “we can’t stay back here. We’ll get caught.” Cas, who apparently had no such worries, pressed himself flush against Dean’s body and kissed Dean sweetly, touching his tongue to the older boy’s lips in order to deepen the kiss. Dean submitted for a moment, maybe two, but eventually he pushed on the smaller boy’s hips and wretched their lips apart.

“If Higgins finds my booth empty we will both be in detention for a month, and my dad will kill me.” Dean whispered as he rested his forehead against Castiel’s.

“They can’t put us in detention. This is the last day of school.” Cas whispered back. Cas attempted to draw him back into the kiss, but Dean resisted.

“Cas, my…my dad is supposed to be here soon.” Cas sighed at Dean’s words and let the older boy go.

“We have all summer right?” Cas asked.

“All summer.” Dean promised with a small kiss to Castiel’s cheek. Cas took one more kiss after making Dean promise to meet him at their spot the next day, and then he sauntered away, knowing full and well that Dean was watching the way he added an extra shake to his hips.

            Dean sighed and returned to his spot, day-dreaming about what all summer meant. They had all summer to be together. Time without schoolwork, not that Dean did his, but Cas was on the fast track to being class Valedictorian. Time to be together without Sammy tagging along. Time to plan out their final year of high school together. Dean couldn’t wait for the summer to start. He was young, just seventeen, but he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Castiel Novak, and by some miracle, the other man felt the same way about him.

            Dean was devastated when John Winchester picked his boys up from school that day and spent the drive back to the house they were renting (the one where Dean actually had his own bedroom, and there weren’t roaches in the kitchen), telling the two boys that they needed to have their things packed by the next morning because the family was heading out. Dean was devastated when John refused to let him go tell Castiel he was leaving, was devastated when John dropped the boys off at their Uncle Bobby’s and never returned, and devastated when he never saw Castiel Novak again. Until now.

***

“Daddy, Daddy, look I won!” Dean shook himself out of his memories at the sounds of his daughter’s voice, and as he watched his little girl smile so big, green eyes lit with excitement, he wondered how he could have ever not wanted children.

“I see princess, you did so well!” Dean felt eyes on the back of his neck as he lifted Elizabeth up so that she could claim her prize. He chuckled as she squealed with delight and listed off all of the things she wanted to do with her new fish.

“Can I go show Mr. Maddox?” Elizabeth asked, and seeing that the man in question was two booths down and within eyesight, Dean nodded his assent and placed his daughter on the ground. When he straightened back up, he again felt those eyes on him, and one glance in that blue sea showed him all the questions he wanted to ask and more.

            Dean inclined his head to a nearby table, and Cas followed him, both men sitting so that they could keep an eye on Elizabeth. They both were quite for a few minutes, and Dean, working up the nerve to speak, opened his mouth at the same time Cas did.

            When they said each other’s name it wasn’t a question. It was a statement, a statement full of ten years’ worth of love, loss and wonder. Dean glanced a look at the other man’s face and gasped softly when he noticed just how little his Castiel had changed.

            The messy black hair was still there, and if there were small stands of grey mixed in Dean didn’t notice. The crystal blue eyes were just as bright as they were the last day Dean had stared into them, and that beautiful face didn’t look like a single thing had changed. Dean didn’t realize that Castiel was staring right back. He never noticed that Cas was marveling at how the freckles peppered across Dean’s cheeks seemed to have multiplied over the years, how Dean’s eyes were still such a dark green, and how Dean wasn’t wearing a ring on his left hand.

            Dean hadn’t noticed any of those things, but he had noticed that Elizabeth was no longer with Mr. Maddox.

“Elizabeth?” Dean called, standing up. He glanced around in a circle and couldn’t spot his daughter’s blonde, curly hair.

“Elizabeth?!” He said a little louder, and this time Cas stood up, recognizing the distress in his voice. Dean had started to jog to where he had last seen the girl when he heard a cry of “Daddy!” and all forty-eight pounds of his daughter, plus the humongous fish, came flying into his open and waiting arms. Dean swept Elizabeth up into his arms and held her close. Despite the fact that she was only gone a minute or two at the most, Elizabeth seemed just as upset as her dad, if not more. Dean walked back to the table where Castiel was watching the two and sat down, cradling Elizabeth in his lap. Once he was sure she was ok, and he had her attention, Dean wiped the tears from her face and gently scolded her.

“Please don’t ever do that again. You scared me when I couldn’t see you. Why didn’t you stay with Mr. Maddox until I came and got you princess?”

          If Elizabeth replied to her dad, Cas didn’t hear it. He turned from the table slightly to give the duo some space, but watched out of the corner of his eye as Dean hugged Elizabeth and wiped her tears away. He never would have imagined Dean Winchester as a parent, and apparently he was a good parent. Even when they were together, planning their life, children had never been in those plans. Well, a lot had certainly changed since then. Cas was startled from his thoughts when Dean touched his shoulder.

“Cas? You with me? I’ve said your name three times now.” Dean’s eyebrows were scrunched together in concern and oh wow that face brought back memories Cas had thought were long forgotten.

“I’m fine Dean. Sorry, I was just thinking.” Dean regarded Cas for a minute. He opened his mouth to pose a question, but shut it quickly. The silence stretched between them long and heavy as each man was wrapped up into thoughts of the past. When Dean finally opened his mouth again to speak, he had to clear his throat, it was so dry.

“So um…what brings you here?” Dean asked, “If you don’t mind my asking…” He added hesitantly.

“I relocated here for my job actually. A CEO position opened up within the pharmaceutical company I work for and when it was offered to me, I accepted. The commute wasn’t really doable, so Matthew and I packed up and have been living here for a month now.” Dean wasn’t surprised to hear that Cas was a CEO. He was incredibly smart. Ten years ago Dean knew that Cas would go far, just how far was now sitting beside him.

“Matthew?” Dean asked before Cas could pose a question on his own.

“See the kid manning the bouncy house?” Cas said as he pointed to a sullen looking kid who was leaning against one of the booths with his attention only half on the bouncy house in front of him. It was pretty obvious to Dean that this child was Cas’s son. The messy black hair he sported was trademarked by Cas, and the way he was currently crossing him arms made Dean think of how Cas did the same when he was angry.

“He’s mad because I made him volunteer, and because I took his cell-phone away.” Dean got the impression that Castiel was actually amused with his son rather than annoyed, but about what, Cas didn’t say. Dean and Cas sat quietly, watching the boy as he allowed one of the children standing in line in front of the bouncy house to enter it. A moment later he stuck his head in the small entrance and yelled something, presumably a warning to one of the children inside.

“He’s not a bad kid. He was mad that we moved, and he thought the best way to let me know it was to act out in class. When I told him that he was going to volunteer for this fair to make up for his behavior I was called mean and unfair. He’s thirteen, but he acts like a sixteen year old.” Cas shook his head in exasperation.

            Eventually Elizabeth calmed down enough to play again, and she ran over to join the bouncy house line. Cas and Dean talked for more than an hour as they kept an eye on their children. The conversation came naturally, with no more awkward pauses. Cas told Dean about his brief relationship that had been serious enough for the couple to adopt a five year old Matthew. He talked about the grueling custody battle that left him with sole parental rights of Matthew. Dean talked about the surrogacy program he and a former partner had gone through to have Elizabeth, and then how he came home to find his partner and the surrogate in bed together.

            They talked a lot about their children, how they were the most important person in each man’s life. They discussed at length Dean’s struggle to get his Associate’s Degree, Cas was sure that Dean was smart enough to do it, but Dean had doubts. After that Dean turned the conversation and found out the Cas had a Master’s Degree in pharmaceutical engineering. The only thing they did not talk about was what had torn them apart all those years ago.

            When the game booths started closing up, and the crowd had thinned out considerably, Dean realized that he needed to get Elizabeth home and in bed. He stood up and stretched, meaning to walk over to the bouncy house and collect the girl, but Cas grabbed his arm before he took more than two steps in that direction.

“Dean…I…I”

“Here,” Dean said as he grabbed a pen off the table and pulled Cas’s arm in front of him before writing something on the pale skin, “this is my number. Call me sometime and we can go get a coffee or something.” Cas was quiet as he read the number on his arm. Dean mistook his silence to mean that something was wrong,

“I mean, we don’t have to if you don’t want to Cas. I just thought…we had a pretty good time today catching up…I thought maybe you’d want to do it again.” Cas wasn’t intentionally ignoring Dean, and he wasn’t even upset about the number. Instead, Cas was remembering the day he first met and fell in love with Dean Winchester.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea if a Master's In Pharmaceutical Engineering is possible, but it sounded good.....t


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, pretty excited about chapter 3! Gives you a little more background on our boys:) Also, I finally got over the rut I was in so hopefully I can post again soon!! Let me know what you think!

            The classroom was hot and stuffy. All the windows were open, but there wasn’t a single breeze in the air, everything was still. Although it was only the first class of the day, sixteen year old Castiel Novak was sweating. Using a folder as a fan, Cas stared out the window and tried to imagine how wonderful going for a swim in the lake after school would be when a voice, cracked from puberty, jolted him from his daydreams.

“Yeah um…hi. I’m Dean. Uh, Dean Winchester. Just moved here from Kansas with my brother and dad.” The boy was still talking, but Castiel had stopped listening. Instead, he was staring; Cas was pretty sure that the boy in front of him was the most beautiful he had ever seen. The spikey blonde hair, emerald eyes, and freckles assaulted Cas from where he sat in the backrow. He tried to bring his attention back to what the teen was saying, but it was difficult. It took a minute for Cas to realize that the teen was walking back towards him. Then he remembered that the only empty seat in the room was right beside him. 

            Dean slung his beat up backpack onto the table, giving the teacher a shrug and an apologetic look when the sound attracted the attention of everyone else in the room. Old Mr. Jacobs must have decided Dean hadn’t done it on purpose, because after a squinty-eyed look in their direction he continued on with his boring lecture about Newton’s Laws of Motion. Cas immediately tuned him out in favor of surreptitiously watching Dean out of the corner of his eye.

            After sitting down Dean had shrugged off the faded flannel shirt he was wearing to reveal a black Guns N’ Roses t-shirt the hugged his chest. Cas was sure that he had a six pack under that shirt. Up close, Cas was even more enamored by the freckles on Dean’s face. They were everywhere and they were beautiful.

            When a folded piece of paper slide over to Cas’s side of the desk he just stared at it for a moment. When Dean nudged it closer to him, he picked it up and read it.

**Like what you see?**

Cas blushed when he realized he had been caught staring. Then he blushed harder because he knew that Dean could see him blushing. His only hope was that the heat in the room made it seem as if he was only hot. Cas debated on how to answer for a few minutes. Dean was new and Cas knew nothing about him. Cas could play it off, joke with him and everything would be fine; or he could take a chance that Dean was interested. Cas glanced over at Dean a little more openly than before. He looked as though he was paying rapt attention to every word that came out of Mr. Jacobs’s mouth, but Cas could see the slight smirk on the side of his mouth that meant Dean was aware of Castiel’s gaze.

_Yes._

Castiel waited until Mr. Jacobs had turned back to the chalkboard before sliding the note back over to Dean. Now it was his turn to pretend to listen to the lecture as he waited for Dean’s response. It didn’t take long, but that minute or two felt like a week to Cas. When the note slid back across to him he wiped his sweaty hands- from the heat or his nerves he didn’t know- on his jeans before opening it up.

**You don’t look so bad yourself. Name’s Dean. You?**

Cas ducked his head in a smile as he felt the heat of a blush rush through his face again.

_Castiel, but friends call me Cas._

**Castiel? Nice. Like the angel?**

Castiel was surprised when he saw that Dean knew the origins of his name. Most people didn’t.

_Just like the angel. My parents were weird. My twin brother got the better end of the deal. He’s named Gabriel._

**You’re a twin? That’s cool, it would drive me insane though to be confused with my younger brother. He’s such a nerd.**

_Gabe and I are fraternal twins so we are never mistaken for one another. He’s like a foot shorter than I am and he has red hair. Most people don’t even realize we are related._

“Mr. Novak. Mr. Winchester. As interesting as your conversation is, I think Newton’s first law is a little more important. Please refrain from passing notes in my class. I will read them aloud next time. Really Mr. Novak, you should know better. And you Mr. Winchester do not want to make such a bad impression on your first day here.” Mr. Jacobs took a deep breath, and looked ready to continue his lecture when the bell rang, saving both boys, and the rest of the class from continued torture.

Cas and Dean tore out of the classroom, and both started laughing as soon as they were a safe distant away.

“I didn’t think we were going to make it out.” Dean said.

“Nah, Jacobs is all bark and no bite.” Both boys were silent after this, and Cas continued on his way to his next class, with Dean following a bit aimlessly beside him. After a moment Castiel pulled up short and turned to Dean.

“Do you even know where you are going?” Castiel asked. Dean shook his head and waved paper with his class list on it. Castiel grabbed it and scanned it quickly.

“Awesome, we have every class together.” Not that it’s surprising, he thought, “The school is so small that there aren’t a lot of classes offered. Most of the time the junior and senior class is combined.”

Having every class together did not mean that Dean and Cas were able to sit together. Despite being in high school, the teachers seemed to think that the only way to maintain order was to have assigned seating. Dean and Cas were only beside each other in one other class that day, and of course they spent that entire time passing notes back and forth. They met at the door in between classes and picked up their conversation where it left off before, and Cas led Dean to each class, showing him short cuts and giving advice on how to manage at the school.

Dean for his part listened closely to everything Cas said and thanked for about a dozen times for the tour. When the final bell of the day rang, Dean gathered his things and put his flannel back on. He waited for Cas beside the classroom door, and then followed him to his locker. Dean had already been shown his, and it being the first day, he didn’t have anything he needed to store. The boys made their way outside, laughing and talking as though they had known each other for years. When they reached the side walk in front of the school.

“Well…um, thanks. You know, for showing me around today.” Dean rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Thanks was not something that came easily to him.

“No problem Dean, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Cas smiled then, and Dean swore the sun looked dim next to the black-haired, blue eyed boy.

The boys parted ways then. Cas headed towards the student parking lot and leaned up against a Ford pickup that had seen better days, and waited for Gabriel. The twins shared the truck, and while they alternated driving to the school each morning, the rule for the ride home was the first one to the car got to drive. Cas was always first.

Dean headed over to the junior high school to meet Sammy. The high school got out about ten minutes before the junior high did, so Dean leaned up against the side of the building and waited for his gigantor brother to emerge. When the bell finally rang, Sam was one of the last to leave the building, and he was surrounded by a small group of people. Dean snorted and shook his head. Leave it to Sammy to make a dozen friends on the first day he thought. Not that it surprised him. Everyone loved Sammy, and Dean was proud of his nerdy baby brother. He was smart and got along with everyone.

When Sam finally realized his brother was waiting for him, he detached himself from the group and made his way over to where Dean was standing.

“How was your day?” Dean asked as he ruffled Sam’s long hair.

            Instead of answering, Sam gave his brother his patented bitch face number three and started to walk away. Dean jogged to catch up, and slung an arm around Sam’s shoulder.

“Who was that girl you were walking with Sammy? She looked pretty cute.”

            Apparently deciding that his brother wasn’t trying to be an ass, Sam decided to answer.

“Her name is Jess. She’s pretty cool. She showed me around the school. How was your day?” Sam and Dean traded stories about their day as they walked to the house they were currently renting. Sam talked forever about Jess, and Dean causally mentioned Cas. Sam knew when his brother had a crush, and also knew that if he said anything about it Dean would display some of the ‘brotherly love’ that Sam tried to avoid.

           Not surprisingly, John Winchester’s Impala was absent from its spot in the garage, and a glance inside the house showed the nothing had been unpack from their meager belongings that they were able to shove in the truck of the Impala between moves. Dean sighed in resignation and began to unpack starting with the kitchen so that supper could be made, knowing that if he didn’t it would never get done. He refused Sam’s help, directing the boy to the kitchen table to start on his homework. Dean stopped unpacking pretty quickly when his stomach started to rumble. He had not ate lunch at school, didn’t have the money to buy it, and Dean knew that Sam had to be hungry for the same reason. John had at least managed to make a trip to the store Dean saw when he pulled open the refrigerator. After a brief argument with Sam over what they wanted to eat, Dean decided on chili and gathered the ingredients on the counter while ignoring Sam’s pout.

            The evening passed quietly. In between stirring the pot of chili Dean unpacked more boxes and helped Sammy with his algebra homework, math was the one subject the boy had trouble with, and thankfully, it was the one subject Dean understood. When Dean finally collapsed into bed that night, hours after Sammy, he realized that he had not done his own homework.

***

“Cas? Are you ok?” Dean’s eyebrows were scrunched together in concern as he looked into Castiel’s face. When Cas finally came out of whatever trance he was in, he looked down to where Dean was still holding his hand. Dean, following his gaze, hastily dropped his hand and took a step back.

“I…I’m fine Dean. Just got caught up in the memories,” he glanced again at his now released hand and read the numbers listed there, “I’ll definitely call you sometime. You were right, this was nice.” The two men shook hands in an awkward goodbye, and walked towards the bouncy house where Elizabeth was the last child inside.

“Hey princess, ready to go home?” Dean called into the entrance. A second later Elizabeth came bouncing out of the opening and Dean barely managed to catch her in time. Elizabeth waved goodbye to Castiel and Matthew, and Cas was surprised when Matt waved back. Even more surprised at the tiny smile he son gave.

            Elizabeth chattered in Dean’s ear the entire way to the car, and was asleep two minutes into the drive home. Dean smiled as he glanced in the rearview mirror. As horrible as their separation had been when Dean was pulled away from Castiel all those years ago. If doing it over again meant the Dean wouldn’t have his daughter…well, not even Castiel was worth that.

           It wasn’t until Dean got home and tucked Elizabeth in for a nap that he realized that Cas had not said a single word about the pink nose and black whiskers painted on Dean’s face. Dean grimaced in the mirror as he scrubbed the paint off. Of all the times to run into an old…old, well Dean wasn’t sure what Cas was to him, but he was sure that it was the most embarrassing time to run into him.


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look!! I updated!! YAY me.....lol It's a small chapter, but it is still an update!

           Castiel got up early the next morning. He had not slept well, and spent most of the night tossing and turning as he dreamed about emerald green eyes and a vast landscape of freckles. By six he was on his second cup of coffee and had developed a plan for unpacking the rest of the boxes that were scattered around the kitchen island he was leaning against. The kitchen was not a room used frequently in the Novak household, so it wasn’t a surprise that a month after moving in, the only part of the kitchen that had been unpacked was the coffeemaker and Castiel’s favorite mug, the one Matt had hand painted as a father’s day present years ago.

            It didn’t take long for Castiel to decide he was never moving again. The process of packing and unpacking just wasn’t worth it. Putting the kitchen to rights was going to be an all morning job. The first box Cas opened was full a Tupperware lids, and Cas was pretty sure he didn’t have the bowl to match half of the lids. The second box contained plates and bowls, which would come in handy if he and Matthew ever wanted to eat off something that wasn’t paper plates, or cardboard containers. After finding a second, even bigger box of Tupperware lids, and a search of the rest of the boxes did not result in the bowls, Castiel gave up on the whole endeavor.

            Resolving to work more on the kitchen later, Cas moved into his office in check his emails. The rising sun, shining in through the set of French doors that took up one wall of the office was plenty of light for Castiel to find his way to desk and power on his laptop. Castiel spent the minute or two the computer took to turn on straightening his desk. When he reached up to remove a post-it note he had hastily stuck to the shade of his desk lamp, Cas noticed the fading numbers on the inside of his arm.

            Castiel stared at his arm long enough for the computer screen to turn on, and then go back into sleep mode from lack of use. Without realizing what he was doing, Cas grabbed a pen from the holder and pulled a fresh sticky-note from his desk drawer. He copied the numbers down slowly, checking and rechecking the faded numbers to make sure he had written the correct ones down. Finally, after reading through the number so many times that he had it memorized, Cas glanced over at the phone on his desk. He debilitated briefly, before picking up the receiver and punching in the now familiar numbers.

***

            Dean was relieved when Elizabeth went to bed without a fuss. He was grateful that the carnival had worn her out, because he was no way prepared to wrangle his normally hyper girl into bed, especially when he had class in an hour. Dean had just enough time to grab something to eat, dig his textbook out of the closet where it had been banned, and usher Mrs. Mullins into the living room with a thanks and a promise to pay her when he got home before he was out the door and climbing into his Impala.

            He realized too late that he had once again forgotten to do the homework assignment, and he vowed to do the next one, despite the small voice in his head that reminded him that he hadn’t completed a single homework assignment yet. Despite his lack of time to complete assignments, Dean was faring pretty well in this particular class. He had so far aced all the tests and quizzes, which were a bigger percentage of his overall grade, so the missed homework wouldn’t affect him too badly.

            Class droned on and on like usual, and Dean questioned, not for the first time, the usefulness of geography for a degree in business. While the professor lectured on the difference between the Gobi Desert and the Sahara Desert (honestly though, it’s a desert, they are both hot and have no rain right?) Dean started to daydream about a pair of gorgeous blue eyes and all the emotions that came with them.

            Castiel had been Dean’s first boyfriend in a sea of girls. Dean had known from a pretty young age that he was bisexual. Before his mom had died all those years ago, Dean had attended a small daycare three times a week in order to develop better social skills. On the way home from the first day Mary had listened to Dean jabber on and on about his new friend Jake. This went on for weeks until one day John picked Dean up and almost wrecked the Impala when Dean described his friend as ‘cute’.

            Dean woke up to the sound of his parents arguing. Padding out into the hallway in his footie pajamas, Dean stood at the top of the stairwell listening; he knew better than to go down when his daddy was yelling.

“He’s just a boy John! He doesn’t understand yet what that means!” Mary didn’t yell at her husband so much as she angrily whispered, keeping an ear out for Dean, and placing on hand on her stomach where the child inside was making his presence known by kicking her bladder.

“I don’t care! He called the boy cute! My son is not going to be a f-“

“DON’T YOU DARE CALL OUR SON THAT!” Dean flinched when his mother raised his voice. He never heard his mom get so angry, even at dad. The whimper Dean let escape was enough to let Mary know he was awake, and she quickly appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

“Dean? What are you doing awake sweetie?” Mary asked her oldest son in such a gentle voice that Dean started crying in relief. They were arguing about him, that much he knew, but Mary was not mad at him. At the sight of her crying son Mary ascended the stairs with more speed than a pregnant woman should have been capable of. She swept Dean up into her arms and carried him back into his room. Mary hummed the first few notes of the familiar lullaby, and Dean drifted back off to sleep with ‘Hey Jude’ in his dreams. Mary and John never finished their conversation, but after that Mary was the only parent to pick Dean up from Daycare.

            Years later, during a period of time when John had dropped his boys off at their uncle Bobby’s and had disappeared on one of his ‘hunting’ trips, a ten year old Dean developed a crush on the boy that got off of the same bus stop as the Winchester brothers. Bobby noticed the connection between Dean and the neighbor’s kid and sat Dean down for a talk.

            As gruff as Bobby tried to be, John’s boys would always be his first, and he was going to love them no matter what. Dean would always remember that conversation, it was the first time he had been able to admit that he liked boys sometimes like he liked girls. He knew that Bobby would always be there, and he knew that John would never understand.

            Dean hadn’t done much to hide his relationship with Castiel from John, and the two had fought over it more than once. After every argument Dean would call Bobby, and the two would talk about anything and everything; fishing, hunting, school, Sam. Bobby had been there when Dean was ripped away from Castiel, and later he had been their when Dean had fought for custody of Elizabeth after he had been cheated on.

            Castiel’s sudden reappearance in Dean’s life had thrown him for a loop. There were so many things that had been left unsaid between the two boys, now grown men. They both had failed relationships, children, and Cas had his own business. Dean was struggling to get by while raising Elizabeth, and he wasn’t sure he had the time for a relationship, if that’s what Castiel even wanted. All he knew was that there was definitely still something between them, and he had to decide if it was worth pursuing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment, Kudos, you know the deal.....let me know if you like it! Hopefully more soon!


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